All Projects

Designing the figma for consumer social

Concept, UI/UX

Product concept

Year

2023

Year

2021

Challenge

An experimental prdocut to bring the best of both worlds between a synchronous and asynchronous online experience.

Challenge

Design SuperShare’s new consumer social product with a hyper focus on a distribution first strategy.

Outcome

A concept product where users can consume content together with friends or if they missed the hangout session asynchronously watch it later in a simulated co-watching experience.

Outcome

A decentralised content sharing app with gamified reward mechanism that got us 10 million monthly viewers within 6 months of launch, positively enabling us in our Series A funding.

Prologue

Since the get go SuperShare was aiming to build a multiplayer internet. Most of the activities we do online today, we do it by ourselves. Social media has become less social and more media. Jam was an attempt to test if we can come out with a solution to fix this issue. How? Let's take a quick look at the issue.

QTalk was an early stage seed funded startup in the utility product space, set out with a huge hope to be the next Facebook/Instagram some day. The utilitarian aspect of Qtalk however was simply a means to an end. We envisioned a product where users can come for the tool, and stay for the network.

As of when I was assigned this project QTalk was a basic call dialler app and I was responsible to research on user pain points, understand the areas we could add some delight, and build an feature packed version of Supershare

Asynchronous vs Synchronous experience

Many online activities, such as watching movies, shopping, browsing, reading articles, and listening to music, are typically done individually. However, individuals often recommend shows to friends for shared discussions later or seek their opinions on items in their shopping cart by sharing screenshots. While asynchronous sharing is common due to varying schedules, synchronous experiences like shopping together, watching movies, playing multiplayer games, or engaging in video calls offer richer interactions.

Asynchronous activities are more prevalent due to their flexibility, yet they often lack the depth of shared experiences. Conversely, synchronous experiences offer a higher level of closeness and connection with others but are less frequent due to the challenges of coordination.

Our philosophy

We were aware that transforming the entire internet into a multiplayer experience is a complex challenge, especially before validating the philosophy behind it first. Therefore, we decided to focus on the most common use case of a multiplayer experience, which is co-watching video content. This is a concept that most users are familiar with and comfortable adopting. Rushing into advanced features too quickly could potentially alienate users and create adaptation difficult, as explained by Raymond Loewy's Maya principle.

While platforms like Netflix and Prime already offer co-watching features, they require users to coordinate and commit to a specific time for synchronous viewing. Our goal was to enhance this experience further by creating a seamless transition between synchronous and asynchronous modes. This means eliminating the need for detailed planning and commitment while allowing synchronous experiences to occur more spontaneously, introducing serendipity in online interactions.

Once the team and stakeholders were in sync with this direction we moved forward to conceptualise multiple solutions to solve this problem.

User Journey

As we dived deeper into this project we realised that it was a landmine of edge cases and situations to think of both from a users frame of reference while managing tech complexities and business goals. To keep things simple, I'll limit this project to one of the solutions we came up with.

Meet

Archie

Archie, a 24-year-old who is passionate about sports and automobiles, often spends time on platforms like YouTube after work. He enjoys learning new things related to his interests and is eager to share interesting discoveries with his active group of friends. Their routine includes daily evening calls when everyone is available.

As Archie opens Jam, he starts browsing the home feed, which includes a mix of long and short videos fetched from YouTube and similar platforms.

Jam mode

After scrolling and searching, Archie comes across a video about drift performance featuring one of his favorite cars, the BMW M3. Intrigued, he taps on the video card, which takes him to a dedicated Jam mode within the app. Here, Archie can watch the entire 8-12 minute video while also having the option to add reactions, comments, and clip portions of the video, all within a private space owned by Archie.

Adding reactions, comments and clips

As Archie continues watching the video, he realizes its relevance to a recent discussion he was having with his friends. So he decides to share the video with them. While watching, Archie can react or add comments that are tied to specific moments in the video's timeline. As he adds reactions and comments, the timeline populates gradually, making it easier for everyone to browse through the Jam and quickly find the most engaging sections of the content.

Sharing Jam with friends

Sharing a Jam is straightforward; Archie can simply tap the share button located at the top left corner of the screen, choose his friends from the list, and send them an invitation. In this scenario let's assume Veronica and Reggie missed the notification as they were busy. Betty on the other hand received a push notification on her device, prompting her to check out Archie's Jam.

Co-existing on a Jam

As soon as Betty opens Archie's Jam, he will be notified so that he can join with her. Since Archie was still active on the Jam, Betty can see his avatar on the timeline, and vice versa. This creates an opportunity for serendipity within Jam. The platform prompts both Archie and Betty to start a party since they are both online and sharing the same private space. Archie can send a party request, Betty can accept, and now they are partying together in Archie's room.

Archie's room

Once Archie and Betty are in the room, they have several options available. They can continue watching the video, engage in chit-chat, switch to a different video, and even invite more friends to join the room.

While the Jam Archie created earlier remains a permanent entity on his profile, the session within the party is not stored anywhere. Archie has the option to make the party public, allowing any of his other friends to join the party and participate in the synchronized experience.